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There have been a few games in the App Store that have had players putting out fires with hoses,
but none of them have seemed to pull it off with such finesse as the developers of Sprinkle
have. It seems that Earth tourists are constantly crashing into the straw huts on Titan, one
of Saturn's moons. Rather than let the inhabitants have their homes destroyed, it's up to you
to man the water cannon and put out the fires, wasting as little water as possible.
The hose is manned by three controls. Pressing the big red button in the bottom right of
the screen will fire the water, while the nozzle itself can be aimed in an arc, and
the height of the hose can be adjusted as well. The trick to each stage is to put out
the fires using as little water as possible (with a perfect run netting you five drops
on level completion). This is achieved using slopes and crevices in the landscape to create
optimum routes for your water to travel down (often there being objects such as windmills
and rocks either aiding or impeding your progress).
What makes this game such a joy to play is how amazing the water is. Not only visually,
but the way it pools up, splashes over ridges and drains away shows that the developers
really fine-tuned this aspect of the game. This is noticeable in the sound department
as well, with the water sounding really great at the expense of the other sound effects
and music (not that the rest of the graphics and sound are bad, they're just not as noticeable).
The first two worlds of Sprinkle shouldn't take you long to complete, but if you wish
to continue with more content, you can either achieve five drops on every level, or pay
an extra couple of dollars for the rest of the game. Depending on how much you enjoy
this great entry into the physics puzzle genre will influence whether or not there is value
in this transaction.